Almost no precipitation in the past week, but since we are still coming out of generally wet, I'm going to keep it at Near Normal but Mildly Dry is coming into sight. Some early leaves on the ground are dry and crunchy. Basement is dry-ish. Potted plants need water (but end of season approaches for them anyway). Grass growth has slowed down.

A few more tree leaves are falling here and there. It's the time of year when I spot a particularly colorful leaf, I stop, pick it up, and say "Oo!" and treasure it for a moment. But soon, I'll be ankle deep in leaves.

In the garden, everything left blooming is winding down, except for the asters and sedum. They are heading up to their peak bloom. And the bees will practically move onto them.

Bees continue their end-of-season behavior. They are buzzing everywhere, checking out everything, and (sadly) struggling to get back home now. But this is the way of bees. Hummingbird has still not been spotted in the past week, so that makes a good two weeks of not seeing them. As soon as the first frost comes (I estimate within 2 weeks?), I'll put away the feeder which the bees have been hogging anyway. A large bunny rabbit and I mutually scared each other last evening. I decided that he won so I backed away. I might have heard more coy dogs in the past few nights. Plus an owl.

Allergies have been low.

The angle of the sun and some good sun-shiny days is typically how we say goodbye to summer. It's so hard to blink into the afternoon sun and realize that we are now about 3 months from the winter solstice. We had a drier north wind yesterday as a first inkling of our winter-type winds. The furnace is running now. Soup season, I plan, officially begins today.